Sinployea capensis
Sinployea capensis was named in 2025 by Frank Climo, Karin Mahlfeld and David Roscoe, in their revision of the genus Sinployea. It belongs to the Charopidae: mostly tiny, finely ribbed snails of forest litter, and the largest family of New Zealand land snails.
| Family | Charopidae |
| Authority | Climo, Mahlfeld & Roscoe, 2025 |
| Threat status | Proposed in 2025, see Conservation below |
| Shell | Shell small, depressed subglobose, thin, and fragile, 1.87 mm wide and 937 μm high at three whorls, sparsely ribbed, loosely coiled with a silky sheen. |
Distribution
Hawke’s Bay, ‘Cape Sanctuary’ reserve near Cape Kidnappers.
Habitat
Possibly rewarewa (Knightia excelsior) and kanuka (Kunzea ericoides R.Br.) forest litter and in moss.
The name
Named after the Cape Sanctuary at Cape Kidnappers.
Conservation
During a field trip in July 2020, we collected a total of 17 samples close to the site where we collected S. capensis, including sites with different microhabitats and forest canopy tree species. Only two samples, one from moss, under a kanuka canopy above a rewarewa patch, and one in kanuka litter a few metres from the other site, both at ~ 140 m a.s.l., produced specimens of this rare species. Sample sizes ranged from 2.5 to 5 L of leaf litter. Taking the entire area of the Cape Sanctuary reserve as an approximation of area of occupancy could lead to an overestimation of the real distribution of S. capensis. Three hundred and fifty-four samples made within a distance of 80 km from Cape Kidnappers, which represents collecting for the last 100 years, with the bulk of the sampling done within the last 50 years (Fig. 32), produced S. capensis except for the 1983 records. This information suggests that S. capensis is probably a local endemic restricted to the Cape Sanctuary. In order to determine its range within the Sanctuary, much more collecting is required from different habitat types and at different seasons. The Cape Sanctuary has a predator-proof fence, and pest control there is intensive, hence the habitat of this rare snail species is relatively secure. We recommend continuing to rank this species as ‘Threatened: Nationally Critical’, with the qualifier ‘Data Poor: Size and Trend’ and ‘Biologically Sparse’.
Sources
- Described in: Mahlfeld, K., Climo, F. & Roscoe, D. (2025). Systematics, conservation status, and biogeography of 16 new species of Sinployea Solem, 1983 (Gastropoda: Charopidae) from New Zealand. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204(1). Publication details
- Treatment on Plazi (CC0). Distribution, habitat, name and conservation text are quoted from it.
This record was compiled from published, public data. A full factsheet for this species has not been written yet.